Cape Coast

Soo here's a recap of my weekend in Cape Coast (and I'm a little tired so sorry if there are typos):

Joseph, Jennifer and I took an unbelievably uncomfortable tro-tro ride from Accra to Cape Coast on Friday afternoon. We got there and it was much cooler (temperature-wise) than Accra, but we were thirsty and hungry and dirty and sweaty (as we often are). I sat by a window and by the time we got there, the arm I'd had by the window was covered with a film of black soot from the exhaust. There are no emissions regulations here that I'm aware of, and it shows. We then tried to go to this one hotel, but it had been closed recently. Its so funny, there are signs for the hotel everywhere, and when you point them out, people look at them and scratch their heads, puzzled and say they've never heard of it. Soo then we went to this one hotel and got rooms for $1.50 for the night. There was electricity and there was supposed to be running water by morning. Definitely the dirtiest hotel I've ever been in...but its Africa, so hey. We went down to the ocean to Castle Beach's bar and restaurant for drinks (after having bucket-showers at the hotel and dinner somewhere else). Most of the restaurants here are open air, and this one we sat right over the ocean. The beach in this area is just rocks, so it actually looks a lot like Monterey or Big Sur, with huge waves crashing against rocks and making tidepools. We soon made some friends with a few random locals, reggae musicians who sang for us. One boy had a rap about HIV/AIDS and another about respecting women. Obviously, I loved it! Another guy was EZ, or Ezekiel, a former reggae musician-turned-preacher at the ripe age of 27. He was just lovely. When we left he negotiated a dirt-cheap cab fare for us and wished us well.
On the way back, we passed this bar we'd had dinner at earlier and it had turned into a huge party, spilling out into the streets, with incredibly loud music. We decided to get out there and hang out for a few minutes. We went inside and danced for awhile. This deaf boy came up and started signing, and Jen speaks ASL. He was so delighted, it was really sweet. The music was really loud so he could feel it even though he couldnt hear it, and he was a great dancer!! So we eventually headed home and fell asleep.
On Saturday we headed up to the Kokum Rainforest. There's a long canopy walkway high above the rainforest floor there that we wanted to see. We climbed up an enormous hill to the canopy. I'm afraid of heights, so this was a big deal. The canopy was very narrow, it was basically a ladder with wood over it, then really strong netting up 6 feet (so at least you couldn't fall over it). Its hard to explain, but we're uploading pictures soon. Jen is the more diligent photographer, so I recommend you check out her Flickr site (through her blog, link is at the right of the page). Anyway, walking across the canopy was terrifying. It was swaying every which way, the wood was creaking, and you can see the rainforest floor faaaar below. But you can also see amazingly beautiful views of the forest. I'm pretty proud of myself for getting through it, despite my fear of heights. I didn't outwardly freak out or anything, either.
There's an option in the park to camp out in the rainforest. We decided to try it. It was basically a wood floor with dirty floor mats and a ratty mosquito net. But the showers there had wonderful water pressure, it was definitely the best shower I've had in Africa so far!
I didn't sleep much, because I realized I WAS SLEEPING OUTSIDE IN THE AFRICAN JUNGLE. Insane. I found myself wondering what an acceptable level of bugs on my body would be. Surprisingly, I didn't really get any new bug bites. You will all meet a much tougher Catherine when I return. The sounds of the rainforest were amazing, though. So much life. We woke up at 4:45 and took a dawn rainforest hike, and saw one monkey. I'd hoped for more, but it was still nice.
Sunday (today) we caught a tro-tro and rode back to Cape Coast. On tro-tro's, they call the guy who collects fare and yells the car destination, etc. is called a "mate". On our way, the mate jumped out shortly before we got to the last stop, so I was sitting in his seat when we pulled up. I had a brief vision of me as a mate, screaming "CIRcleCIRcleCIRcle" or "Ac-CRA, Ac-CRA" out the window. Some guy asked me if I was the mate, and I laughed a lot. It totally made my day. We went to the Cape Coast Castle, where hundreds of thousands of slaves were kept and transported through the while it was the center of the Gold Coast slave trade. We went inside the dungeons. It was pretty awful, obviously. Standing inside the dungeons had a huge effect on everyone on the tour. There was also a detention cell, where slaves who had revolted or had otherwise caused too much trouble were put in. There's absolutely no light or ventilation. They were put in there to die. I could see scratch marks from their fingernails on the stone walls. I think this room had the most powerful affect on me -- this very human evidence of extreme suffering on the walls.
We also went through the "Door of No Return" to the beach outside where the ships were loaded with slaves headed to the Americas and the Caribbean. Today it was crowded with people fishing or hanging out in the sun, playing really loud music. Quite the contrast. Then we went back through teh same door, which was labeled "Door of Return". It was labeled after Ghana's independence 50 years ago, so that anyone in the African diaspora could return, symbolically. It was pretty powerful.
After the Castle, we went to the nearby restaurant for lunch. We ran into EZ (from Friday night), who joined us. He brought us his music from his "artist days" because we'd expressed interest. He's sooo great! We met a lot of wonderful people this weekend.
Now I'm back in Teshie Camp 2 (the area of greater Accra that the host family is in), safe and sound. I'm exhausted! But it looks like there's electricity, so I get to have the fan on when I sleep. Its the little things that make me happy. Hope everyone had a lovely weekend, too! xoxoxox